Pitt Bar links

Clinics Reach Out to the Community

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Health law. Child welfare and literacy services. Business
consulting. Pitt community outreach centers and clinics provide those services
and more.

An estimated 32,000 children in Pennsylvania have at least one parent
serving in the military. Operation: Military Kids helps those children through
initiatives like a Mobile Technology Lab that provides laptops and hardware to
connect children with deployed parents. It’s part of the Pitt School of Social
Work’s Child Welfare Training Program,
a national leader in advocating for a better quality of life for Pennsylvania’s
children, youth, and families.

In fall 2011, Pitt’s Office of
Child Development (OCD) conducted workshops designed to give children a
stronger voice in afterschool programs. The workshops were just one initiative
among many that support OCD’s core belief that all children, youth, and
families should develop in safe, supportive environments. To help improve the
lives of families who require services, OCD has collaborated with such domestic
and international partners as the Governor’s Commission for Children and
Families, Early Head Start, and the Russian Orphanage Project.

The Community
Leisure-Learn Program, Pitt’s oldest community outreach program, offers
dance classes led by Pitt’s dance team, boxing classes, pick-up basketball
games, and other athletic activities, as well as educational programs focused
on disease prevention, control of movement skills, and stress reduction and
relaxation.

In 2010, students in Pitt’s Health Law Clinicsuccessfully fought for Medicare coverage of
treatment for facial lipodystrophy syndrome, which ravages fatty deposits in
the face and is caused by drug treatment for HIV/AIDS. The clinic gives free
legal assistance to low-income individuals with health-related problems, and also
has tackled legal disputes regarding coverage of treatment for cancer and organ
transplantation. Other Pitt Law clinics
are devoted to the environment, taxes, families, and immigration policies.